The number of “innocence projects” has mushroomed to 35 nationally-nearly half formed in the last four years-triggering a movement that has steadily altered criminal procedures in dozens of states.
Since the 1998 formation of the first Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York, the projects have played a key role in:
- Exonerating 151 prisoners through DNA testing;
- Passing post-conviction DNA statutes in more than a dozen states;
- Implementing videotaped interrogations by more than 200 police departments; and
- Reforming eyewitness identification procedures in two dozen cities.
